


Man After Midnight

by kelex



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-31
Updated: 2014-07-31
Packaged: 2018-02-11 06:30:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2057493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kelex/pseuds/kelex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose has bad dreams after midnight, and the Doctor's there for her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Man After Midnight

**Author's Note:**

> Is there a man out there?  
> Someone to hear my prayers  
> Gimmie gimmie   
> a man after midnight  
> Won't somebody help me chase the shadows away?  
> Gimmie gimmie gimmie   
> A man after midnight  
> Take me through the darkness to the break of the day  
> \--"Gimmie! Gimmie! Gimmie!", Abba

Things came to Rose in her sleep, things that she thought might be dreams but were actually kind of like memories. Only if they were memories, they were of things she didn't remember. 

Gold everywhere, liquid and shiny and filling the air, everything that she could see. She knew it had to be her in the dream, because she looked to the right, and to the left, and it was simply Floor 500 of Satellite Five, that much she recognized even without the ice and Jagrafess as she remembered it. In front of her was the Doctor, the first Doctor she knew, with a confusing tangles of wire and cable leading to what looked like a huge detonator box. 

A viewscreen, a holographic image of some kind hovered in the outskirts of her awareness, and it was the Emperor of the Daleks. Yes, she knew him. And so this was after the Daleks had kidnapped her--only she never remembered what had happened after the Doctor tricked her into going back to Earth. How she got back to him, she didn't know, and the Doctor wouldn't tell her. All he'd tell her was, _you and the TARDIS made it back._

But in the gold-lit darkness of the dreamworld, she heard his voice. "Rose, what have you done?"

And the answer surprised her; "I looked into the TARDIS, and the TARDIS looked into me." Whatever that meant, Rose couldn't figure it out, until the Doctor spoke again.

"You looked into the Time Vortex. Rose, no one's meant to see that."

Rose awoke, gasping. Her head was throbbing, it was almost like there was a fire burning inside her brain, but even as her eyes opened, the pain dissolved into nothingness. No matter how hard she tried, she could only remember the tiniest bits and pieces of what her dream had been about. 

\---  
For three nights, Rose had dreamed of Satellite Five, and still could not remember anything. Every night, she woke with a headache that disappeared as immediately as the dreams did, and all she was left with was fragments. The Time Vortex, that strange golden light, and those damned words echoing again and again, Bad Wolf. Every time, every place, those words. Bad Wolf. 

Her fist thumped the mattress under her, and she tossed her hair back over her shoulder. She was determined to figure out what she was dreaming about. 

\---

Except that she didn't get the chance to. The next night, Rose woke screaming. Not just gasping, but screaming. She was in pain, her mind on fire, her fingers scrabbling on the coverlet as she twisted and writhed. The pain wasn't leaving this time, it was still in her mind, and she'd have sworn that if she opened her eyes, laser-like bursts of gold would stab outwards. 

Then she became aware of arms around her, rocking her and holding her against a chest that beat with two hearts. The Doctor, she realized an instant later, he was holding her and calming her after the dream. "My head," she murmured into his shoulder. "It's killing me." 

"Come here," he whispered quietly, his fingers carding through her long blonde hair. "I think you need a Doctor." Lowering his head, his hand slipped to her chin, lifting it to meet his eyes. 

Rose leaned into the kiss, and the pain flowed out of her head as the Doctor kissed her. A soft muzziness was all that remained, and even her eyes felt cooler, less destructive than before. And wetness, on her cheeks and her pillow, sweat and tears mingled from the pain of her dreams. 

As the Doctor kissed her, he let the pain of the memories flow into him. He was not surprised that the memories were breaking through, even though he'd taken it all from her before. The power was gone, and now he took the memories too. Nothing left to remind her of the Wolf, nothing left to remind her of how she had almost died, nothing left to remind her of the momentary eternity that she had been like him. 

Tears slipped down his face and splashed on Rose's cheeks as he siphoned the agony out of her and took everything into himself. She sighed softly and he let the kiss break, keeping her head supported against his shoulder. 

Rose was much calmer now, and the heat had left her body and her mind. Inside of him, it didn't matter as his body broke it down and exhaled the memories as two golden streams out of each nostril. "Sleep now, Rose," he whispered into her ear, and kissed her forehead as he cradled her close. "I won't leave you again." 

"Okay," came the exhausted reply, and Rose turned on her side to nestle entirely against the Doctor. Her arms wrapped around his waist, and she pillowed her cheek on his shoulder again. 

The trust she gave him was nearly overwhelming, and he stayed awake the entire night, determined to protect her and her dreams from anything that threatened either one of them. 

The End


End file.
